First one I would say is 'Dine, Dine My Darling' by Alkaline Trio. I am a long time Alkaline Trio fan, and I thought they had lost their form with 'Agony & Irony', but they surprised me with 'This Addiction', and this is the highlight of the album. Just a fun, upbeat, but somewhat dark song, which is what the band have always been about.
Next, 'Heartkiller' by HIM. I am a huge HIM fan, and I thought they hit their peak in 2004 with 'Love Metal'. They have been evolving since then, with a more pop driven album ('Dark Light'), then a Doom-tinged, very heavy album ('Venus Doom'). 'Screamworks...' is another venture into the new, with synth based songs, but maintaining a pop, and heavy-ish sound. 'Heartkiller' starts with an awesome synth-riff, and has an all-around fresh sound compared to a lot of the stuff I have heard this year.
The next one, while obviously not recorded this year, is 'Ain't No Grave' by Johnny Cash. This song literally gives me goosebumps. Like I said, since Johnny Cash died several years ago, this is a posthumous song. But it only saw light this year. As far as I know, it is his version of an old folk song. It is a very dark, and the lyrics are fitting to Cash, since the 'American Recordings' series, from I to VI, are like he is dying, from the lyrics and his vocals (obviously later recordings had a very rough, croaky vocal).
I'd like to second Telegraph by mentioning 'The Cave' by Mumford & Sons. I love this song. When I was working in a warehouse earlier this year, I spent my day waiting for this to come on on the radio. It has a really great sound to it. At the time I was into stuff like Bullet For My Valentine, 30 Seconds To Mars etc, so it wasn't exactly my taste then. But needless to say, I really love it.
Rounding my list off, my favourite song of the year, is 'The Catalyst' by Linkin Park. When this song was released, it raised a lot of eyebrows. Linkin Park had always been known for a heavy sound with rapping vocals. But they decided to go somewhere else with the album 'A Thousand Suns', but especially this song. It is electronically-based, gone are the LP that need a guitar as a base to make a great song. I am a massive, long-time fan of LP (since 2000's 'Hybrid Theory'), and I love this song. It may not sound like the band we had on the earlier albums, but I love their sound. It's different and refreshing.
So there you have it.
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